People Before Profit blog

Where are all those Iraqi weapons?

Fri, 30 May 2003 03:02:00 +0000

“Where are the weapons of mass destruction?” That is the first of many awkward questions George W. Bush faces as the vaunted victory in Iraq unravels in chaos. Another question is: “How long will the occupation last and how much will it cost?”

Those questions come from Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, dean of the U.S. Senate, and from Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Lugar shocked the White House, still preening with self-satisfaction over a short war, by warning that Iraq is in such chaos it could become “an incubator for terrorist cells and activity … I am concerned that the Bush administration and Congress have not yet faced up to the true size of the task that lies ahead or prepared the American people for it,” he said in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post. Lugar said that the real cost is estimated at $100 billion, not the $2.5 billion the administration has requested in its current budget.

Lugar’s column appeared as Baghdad continued its descent into chaos. Four U.S. soldiers have been killed in recent days. The city is without electricity. Amid rising hostility, Paul Bremer, the new U.S. administrator, cancelled plans for a quick transition to self rule and announced that U.S. and British occupation forces will rule directly with no timetable for withdrawal.

In a May 21 Senate speech, Byrd focused on the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction. “No weapons of mass destruction have yet turned up,” he said. “The American people may have been lured into accepting the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, in violation of longstanding international law.”

Byrd went on to accuse Bush of “prevarication and the reckless use of power” demanding, “Were our troops needlessly put at risk? Were countless Iraqi civilians killed and maimed when war was not really necessary?”

“Was the American public deliberately misled?” Byrd continued. “What makes me cringe even more is the continued claim that we are ‘liberators’ – liberation implies the follow-up of freedom, self determination, and a better life for the common people.”

Byrd cited the lack of water and electricity, hospitals packed with the wounded and maimed, and the looting of Iraq’s historic treasures, adding, “it is becoming all too clear that the smiling face of the United States as a liberator is quickly assuming the scowl of an occupier.”

Byrd blasted the “lucrative contracts to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure and refurbish its oil industry” awarded to “administration cronies without the benefit of competitive bidding.”

How can the U.S. “afford this long-term, massive commitment, fight terrorism at home, address a serious crisis in domestic healthcare, afford behemoth military spending and give away billions in tax cuts amid a deficit that has climbed to more than $340 billion for this year alone?” Byrd demanded.

Joe Volk, Washington Representative of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) told the World lawmakers “are asking questions the peace movement urged them ask last fall before the vote to authorize war on Iraq. It is tragic they didn’t ask them before so many people died.”

The FCNL has released a statement on Iraq denouncing the “failed policy of preventive war” and calling on the U.S. to accept a leading role for the United Nations in Iraqi reconstruction and transition to democratic self-government.

Scott Lynch, spokesperson for Peace Action, told this reporter, “We warned from the beginning that Iraq would be destabilized. Unfortunately, American soldiers are paying with their lives and U.S. taxpayers will be paying for years into the future. It’s all the result of the Bush administration’s horrible foreign policy. Any idea that this war has made us safer is nonsense.”

Eric Weltman, spokesperson for Boston-based Citizens for Participation in Political Action, told the World that members of the group were delighted at the razor sharpness of Byrd’s speech. “He’s the grand-daddy of the Senate, always defending their constitutional prerogatives,” he added.

Weltman said when the group held its annual dinner with Rep. Barney Franks (D-Mass.) as guest of honor, “He was very emphatic that we all had to unite behind a Democratic candidate who can defeat Bush in 2004. Certainly some of our members will support [Sen. John] Kerry but others may support Rep. Dennis Kucinich or Howard Dean.”

He said the group had built a network of fifty grassroots organizations in working class and Black communities in the past year. “We are holding a grassroots conference in Boston soon to plan our next steps on issues like budget cuts, future wars and electoral action, all with an eye to building our own base and reaching out.”

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Bhopal disaster victims struggle for justice

Fri, 30 May 2003 01:45:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH – Unlike a natural disaster like the recent earthquake in Algeria, some man-made disasters, “industrial accidents,” leave dishes on the shelves, homes intact, windows secure and factories in place.

On Dec. 3, 1984, at least 8,000 residents of the city of Bhopal died when a gas used to make pesticides for India’s “green revolution,” methyl isocynate (MIC), leaked out of the Union Carbide plant and floated into the homes of sleeping workers, their families and neighbors. Award-winning journalist Dan Kurzman notes in his book, The Killing Wind, that the current fatality figure is three times the one announced by the Indian government, and is based on the records of crematorium and cemetery officials.

Kurzman checked hospital and medical records and estimates that 300,000 men, women and children, many not yet born at the time of the corporate killing, were injured, most permanently.

The city of Pittsburgh has about 300,000 residents. Imagine if the disaster had happened here. As a result of breathing the steady, deep breaths of sleep during a single night, all men, women and children would be sick or dead. Dogs, cats and birds would be ill or dying. The city would be silent, except for the survivors’ screams of grief.

The Union Carbide industrial accident in Bhopal is the worst in world history.

Nineteen years later, Union Carbide is now owned by Dow Chemical. Two women, Champa Devi and Rasheeda Bee, survivors of that word-defying December night, are leading a grassroots movement to bring Dow corporate executives to trial in India, force the corporation to provide medical care for the people, pass the chemical securities act, pay restitution to the families and restore the land, water and soil.

Devi, Bee and their translator, Satinath Sarangi, a metallurgical engineer and activist with the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, are currently on a 40-day tour of the U.S. that included a protest at the annual Dow Chemical shareholders meeting in New York and a 20-minute meeting with Dow executives. The World interviewed the leaders between their meeting with the United Steelworkers of America union and their address to a meeting of the Association for India’s Development at Carnegie Mellon University.

Rasheeda Bee serves as the president of the Bhopal Gas Affected Women Stationery Employees Union. Champa Devi is the union’s secretary. All 100 women, 50 Hindu and 50 Muslim, who work at a state-owned factory making office stationery and other goods for the government press are gas victims.

Bee was 28 in December 1984. She had rarely crossed the threshold of her family’s tiny home to venture into outside world. She helped to care for all 37 members of their extended family. “We woke up that morning and heard people running outside,” she recalled as if it were yesterday.

“Imagine, 37 people coughing so badly we were not able to talk to one another. We ran. After about a half mile, I had to sit down. My eyes were so inflamed, like needles piercing into my eyes. My lungs felt like they were filled with red chilies. When I looked around all I could see were dead bodies.

“People [were] lying dead everywhere. Cattle lying dead. At about 4:00 in the morning, the police told us to go back home. The gas had ended. But we decided to get out of the city. And we went to our home village. By the third day, there were still 19 family members missing and we returned to Bhopal. We looked in every hospital. At one hospital, I saw 900 bodies.”

Bee returned home and was re-united with her family. She joined demonstrations at the gates of the Union Carbide plant. The company still had 20 tons of the deadly MIC inside. The people wanted it neutralized or returned to the U.S. The corporation and government put down gunny sacks around the chemical factory, sprayed water from helicopters and hosed down the streets. “But the gas does not follow traffic rules,” said Bee. “The people demanded safety and they demanded [to see] the managers of the plant.”

Demonstrations continued. The Indian government set up relief stations around the city distributing wheat and oil. They dispatched emergency medical personnel from around the country.

Champa Devi said that problems with the plant started long before that deadly December night. Her family reported seeing graves of workers who built the plant in 1972. “People came to Bhopal from all over the state,” she said. “It was work to build the plant and [there were] jobs when it was finished. But people died building that Union Carbide factory. They were buried near the factory and their families told to go back home. Go back to where they came from with nothing.

“After the plant opened, we saw dead cows near pools of water around the plant. My neighbor lost eight goats after they drank from the ponds around the plant. There was never any reason given for their deaths. We would smell awful smells in the air when the wind blew across the factory. Union Carbide never mentioned the product. ”

For survivors, death did not end after the Dec. 3, 1984 accident. Between then and 2001, eight members of the Bee family died of cancer including cancers of the throat, brain, intestines, breast and of leukemia. One of her nephews was six months old the night of the gas wind. When he turned 14 he developed a neurological disorder that has left him in a vegetative state ever since.

The Indian government established 38 work centers in Bhopal to provide training and work for women, including Bee and Devi, because so many men were killed or permanently disabled by the Union Carbide gas. The stationery factory came on line in 1986, but the women were only paid 10 rupees a month. Workers organized a union. They elected Bee and Devi to their offices and began a 17 year campaign for equal pay for equal work. In 1989, all 100 workers and 25 children marched to New Delhi, India’s national capital, and won a raise to 535 rupees per month. But, government workers are paid 2,400 rupees per month. “We wanted equal pay,” Bee clarified. “Not special treatment because we are gas victims.”

Also in 1989, the Indian government accepted a settlement with Union Carbide of $470 million. “They sold out,” said Devi with disgust. “The Silicon Breast Implant settlement was $500 million. In Bhopal, the people saw little change, especially in treating the cancers and continuing sicknesses from the gas.”

In 2001, the stationery workers’ union and Bhopal residents raided hospitals and found medicines for gas victims sitting in storage. On Feb. 28, they stormed Dow Chemical’s headquarters in Mumbai. Using brooms, they vowed to sweep out the corruption in the corporation which denied their families medical care. They were successful in releasing medicine for treatment.

By 2002, the stationery workers’ union and Bhopal residents joined forces with Greenpeace and launched the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal. On the 18th anniversary of the mass corporate killing, the remaining MIC and other chemical waste in the Bhopal factory was finally contained. Dow shipped containers of toxic waste out of Bhopal to European facilities, including to The Netherlands and Switzerland.

President Bee and Secretary Devi are not bitter. Speaking on behalf of tens of thousands of families, victims of the corporate greed, they demand justice as expressed in the union’s slogan, “We are flames not flowers.” Union Carbide, now part of Dow, is guilty of mass murder and the survivors have spent 18 years fighting for justice. “We want the world to remember,” says Devi, “but we want the corporation, especially Warren Anderson (former CEO of Union Carbide), tried in India. We want passage of the chemical securities act, restitution to surviving families, medical care and our land and water restored to its original condition.”

International pressure and direct nonviolent action in Bhopal has produced results. The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal believes that resolutions from unions, organizations and local governments to the Indian government, the U.S. government and Dow Chemical could achieve their demands. “We are the closest we have been [to resolving these issues],” adds Satinath Sarangi. “We need a little push.”

The author can be reached at dwinebr696@aol.com

* * * * *

The Bhopal disaster

• At least 8,000 people died on or shortly after Dec. 3, 1984, as a result of agas leak in a pesticide plant owned and operated by Union Carbide.

• Over 20,000 people have died from the aftereffects, more than 300,000 have been injured.

• By court order Dow Chemical has released Union Carbide internal memos that document a long history of neglected safety precautions dating into the early 1970s. The documents can be found at www.bhopal.net / contaminationtour

• About 1.4 million people live in Bhopal, the 15th largest city in India and the capital of the Madhya Pradesh State.

• Union Carbide originally offered an average payout per victim of only $350 in U.S. currency.

• Approximately 20,000 people still live in the vicinity of the disaster; their drinking water has been declared unsafe but is still the only water available.

• Survivors still suffer alarming rates of cancer and respiratory diseases.

From the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, www.bhopal.net

* * * * *

What you can do

You can write to William S. Stavropoulos, the CEO of Dow Chemical Company, at 2030 Dow Center, Midland, MI 48674, or fax him at (989) 636-1830, and demand that Dow do the following:

• face up to criminal charges in India

• release all toxicological information about the poison gases

• arrange for long-term medical care for survivors

• provide economic rehabilitation to Bhopal

• clean up the toxic wastes and contaminated groundwater

International notes

Thu, 29 May 2003 09:18:00 +0000

Russia: Unions take on Norilsk Nickel

Accusing Norilsk Nickel, Russia’s largest mining company, of sabotaging a labor leader’s election as mayor of Norilsk, unions vowed this week to run candidates in a postponed mayoral election, and in federal parliamentary elections in December.

Union leader Valery Melnikov led in last month’s first round voting for mayor but was disqualified after a challenge the plant’s unions say was engineered by Norilsk Nickel. In the ensuing furor, the company-backed candidates withdrew and the election was put off until later this year.

Alexander Bugayev, chair of the All-Russia Confederation of Labor, told Asia Times that “recent mayoral elections in Norilsk were characterized by unprecedented pressure by the company on alternative candidates, in particular Valery Melnikov. There are reasons to believe,” he added, that if not for the dirty tricks played against him, Melnikov “might have received over 50 percent in the first round.”

Nigeria: Public workers say no to layoffs

The Nigeria Labor Congress has rejected the federal government’s plan to cut the workforce at federal ministries by 10 percent. Calling the proposal a deliberate move to satisfy the demands of the IMF and World Bank, the NLC rejected President Olusegun Obasanjo’s allegations that the workforce was too large and was not sufficiently productive.

NLC Vice President Fidelis Edeh told This Day News that problems in the public sector were the responsibility of the government and not the workforce. “In the last 10 years they have not created more jobs, no employment has taken place, yet there has been a series of compulsory retirement, retrenchment and resignation,” Edeh said. He emphasized that many ministries have vacant positions.

Hungary: Peace forces protest Iraq war

The Civilians for Peace Movement has sent a strongly worded protest to the government over its aid to the U.S. and Britain in the war on Iraq. Reminding Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy of his promise not to send troops to Iraq, the statement accused the government of violating that promise by letting the U.S. Army use Hungary’s air space, public roads and rail lines, and agreeing to send peace-keeping troops to Iraq.

“The Civilians for Peace Movement calls on the Hungarian government and parliament not to put their name at all to the new U.S. military plans in connection with Iran, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Syria, Egypt and Cuba,” the May 19 statement said. The statement noted that the first Hungarian Social Forum brought together some 700 community organizations, trade unions, and religious groups who “condemned war and war-mongering, opposed the new world order based on the hegemony of the USA,” and demanded respect for the UN and international law.

Peru: WFTU calls for solidarity with teachers

In a May 19 statement, the World Federation of Teachers called for solidarity with more than 280,000 Peruvian teachers who have been on strike since May 12, demanding higher salaries and better working conditions. “The Peruvian government has so far failed to act to find a satisfactory solution to the just demands of the teachers,” WFTU said.

At the start of the strike, teachers’ union leader Nilver Lopez said talks with the government failed because Economy Minister Javier Silva Ruete claimed the government had no money to meet the teachers’ demands. Lopez said President Alejandro Toledo had made a campaign promise to give teachers an annual raise, but in the two years since his election, teachers have received one increase amounting to 15 cents.

The WFTU called the Peruvian teachers’ wages and working conditions among the worst in Latin America. It called for full solidarity with the SUTEP teachers’ union’s struggle.

Indonesia: Women protest discrimination at work

A recent report on discrimination by the International Labor Organization (ILO) said women in Indonesia still experience discrimination at work ranging from less pay and fewer decision-making responsibilities than men to greater difficulty in entering the workforce.

The ILO said women’s average earnings were only 68 percent of their male counterparts. It said further that married women were often not given family allowances because according to the Marriage Law they were considered “single,” since married men are legally the heads of families.

Indonesia has ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Equal Remuneration Convention that states that salaries should be set without discrimination. The country also has a new Labor Law that states every worker has the right to receive equal treatment without discrimination from her or his employer. Manpower Minister Jacob Nuwa Wea has acknowledged that implementation of the country’s antidiscrimination laws is still poor.

Compiled by Marilyn Bechtel, who can be reached at cpusainternat@mindspring.com

U.S. Rx for Iraq: privatization

Thu, 29 May 2003 09:10:00 +0000

After compelling United Nations authorization of an extended U.S.-British occupation of Iraq, the Bush administration is now openly focusing on privatizing Iraq’s economy, regardless of the hardships that will mean for the Iraqi people.

U.S. occupation chief L. Paul Bremer told reporters the U.S. will concentrate on installing a “market economy” and “free trade,” eliminating the government subsidies that made food, gasoline and other essentials affordable for the Iraqi people.

Bremer said nothing about allowing the return of democracy and self-government. Instead, he asserted the Bush administration’s intention to impose its neo-conservative ideology on Iraq, declaring, “History tells us that substantial and broadly held resources, protected by private property, private rights, are the best protection of political freedom.”

Bremer’s remarks, wrote Washington Post reporter Scott Wilson, “indicated that Iraqis would not be deciding for themselves what kind of economy will replace the state-planned system that functioned under Hussein.”

Iraq has had a state-run economy for decades. Its enormous oil revenues were used to subsidize basic necessities of life and to make imported goods available at affordable prices. Under 13 years of economic sanctions, the UN Oil for Food program used oil revenues to feed 90 percent of Iraq’s people.

While the U.S. occupation authority is failing to provide for the basic needs of the Iraqi people, it is rushing to restart oil production, control the revenues, and privatize the industry. Under newly passed UN Resolution 1483, the Oil for Food program will end in six months, and the oil revenues, on which Iraq’s economy depends, will go to a fund controlled by the U.S.

Uniting for Peace, a coalition of over 150 peace groups and global non-governmental organizations, criticized the resolution as virtually legitimizing the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. “The United States was successful in bulldozing its way because it offered too many bribes and held out too many threats,” said Rob Wheeler, a coalition spokesman.

With the Bush administration is unilaterally conquering and occupying Iraq, creating “facts on the ground,” some UN Security Council members indicated they felt compelled to approve the resolution in order to enable humanitarian and reconstruction work to begin, and to provide at least some role for the UN. “The ‘opposition’ on the Security Council, not to mention the UN secretariat, has to walk through a minefield,” Ian Williams, who writes on the UN and international affairs for Foreign Policy in Focus, commented earlier this month. “No one wants the Iraqi people to suffer, and they will want to encourage Colin Powell in the internecine battles in the White House. So they have to concede more than they would like … while trying to patch the tear in the global order and the UN Charter that the invasion represented.”

Civilian casualties as a result of the U.S. assault on Iraq are estimated at more than 7,000. Of those, thousands have been killed since the U.S. seized Baghdad seven weeks ago. Many of these deaths have been caused by detonation of unexploded cluster bombs.

Cluster bombs spray hundreds of “bomblets” over a large area. Many of the bomblets do not explode on impact, turning them into de facto anti-personnel mines. The victims are predominantly children who touch the bomblets, which are often brightly colored.

The rules of war prohibit use of indiscriminate weapons, notes IraqBodyCount, which compiles data on civilian casualties in Iraq. “Cluster bombs are … incapable of being used in a manner that complies with the obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants. Those who use them in civilian areas therefore open themselves to charges of war crimes.”

Scientists and relief officials also charge the Pentagon with irresponsible use of depleted uranium (DU) weaponry in Iraq, and with shirking responsibility for cleaning up the toxic residue. DU is denser than steel and lead. The U.S. military used it on a massive scale to penetrate tank armor. DU weapons are made from low-level radioactive wastes. On impact they produce dangerous radioactive dust.

The Christian Science Monitor found “significant levels of radioactive contamination” from U.S. shells at four sites around Baghdad, with radiation levels more than 1,000 times normal background levels. Destroyed tanks and other radioactive debris littering Iraqi cities pose a threat to Iraqis, as well as to U.S. troops.

The U.S. first used DU in the 1991 Gulf War. In the decade following, Iraqi health officials recorded a 200 percent rise in cancer and leukemia cases, particularly in young children, in Basra, close to the fighting.

The U.S. and Britain are the only countries that use depleted uranium.

The author can be reached at suewebb@pww.org

Marchers say poor pay for Iraq war

Thu, 22 May 2003 09:12:00 +0000

BALTIMORE – About 70 peace activists marched from Baltimore to the White House April 26-28 to protest the war on Iraq and the occupation, which they charged, Bush has forced the poor to pay for both in lives lost and tax dollars squandered.

The 44-mile march, sponsored by the Baltimore Anti-War Coordinating Committee, began with a rally in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Place on a cold, rainy Saturday.

Aisha Anderson-Oberman, a middle school teacher active in the Baltimore teachers union, told the crowd, “I know that the price of this war is definitely being paid by the poor here in this city and in the urban and rural school system in this country.”

Like many other public school systems, she said, Baltimore is operating with crushing deficits that have forced layoffs of temporary employees, the elimination of academic coaching positions, and the postponement of repairs and school construction. “At the same time that education and other social programs are feeling the crunch, our federal government spends $1 million on a single Tomahawk missile. And I’ve read that at least 20,000 Tomahawks were used on Iraq. Can we afford this type of spending?”

The crowd shouted, “No!”

Anderson-Oberman recited her “wish list” for what could be done with billions in federal aid to education: Fix or rebuild crumbling Baltimore school buildings; restore art, physical education, and music programs in every school; and provide enough teachers and paraprofessionals to reduce class size and insure safe learning environments.

She decried Bush for settling differences through military force. “Is this what we want our future civic leaders to learn? This must be the beginning of a campaign to defeat Bush in the 2004 elections and anyone else who puts war and corporate profits before education and the needs of our communities.”

The protesters marched through South Baltimore behind a banner that read, “Money for Education & Healthcare, not for War” and “The Cost of the War is Paid by the Poor.” Many residents in the impoverished neighborhoods greeted the marchers with shouts of “Right-on!” and “You got that right!”

When the marchers entered Howard County they were joined by the Howard County Peace Action. On a glorious, sunny spring day the marchers streamed down U.S. Route 1 to College Park, home of the University of Maryland.

On Monday, the marchers trekked into Washington, distributing leaflets as they passed through poor African-American and Latino neighborhoods, charging that 47 percent of Bush’s federal budget goes for military spending while only 34 percent goes for human needs. “The Iraq war is estimated to cost the state of Maryland $1.74 billion,” the leaflet said, adding that Maryland is running a $2 billion deficit because of Bush’s economic and military policies.

Tina Wheeler, district organizer of the Maryland Communist Party, marched the entire distance in the vanguard of the march. “It’s going to cost more than $100 billion to occupy Iraq,” she said. “We need that money here, to provide health care for the uninsured. End the occupation! Bring our troops home!”

International notes

Thu, 22 May 2003 08:57:00 +0000

Nepal: Solidarity needed

A political crisis that has been simmering since last fall erupted in violence last week, as over 150,000 security forces mobilized by the monarchy attacked peaceful protests organized by five major political parties throughout the country. Hundreds were wounded, many severely.

Several leading members of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML), including former members of the government and parliament, were injured, as were many leaders of other democratic parties.

The crisis began last October when the king unconstitutionally sacked the elected government, and arbitrarily formed a new cabinet. The multiparty movement to safeguard democracy, the multiparty system and the rule of law, sought unsuccessfully, over a period of months, to reach a national consensus and cooperative environment with the king.

The CPN (UML), which is among the parties organizing the people’s movement to uphold democracy, is calling for messages protesting the attack and urging the protection and expansion of democracy. Faxes can be sent to the royal palace and military command, 011-977-1-422-8515, to the prime minister, 011-977-1-422-7286, and the CPN (UML) at uml@ntc.net.np.

S. Korea: Truckers win victory

South Korean truck drivers went back to work May 15 after a week-long strike that crippled Pusan – the world’s third busiest port – which handles four-fifths of the country’s ocean-going cargo. Their union won a series of concessions from the government, including fuel subsidies, tax cuts and lower highway tolls for truckers.

Other recent labor movement victories include abandonment of plans to privatize the country’s national railway network and sell the state-owned Chohung Bank, and a victory for workers at Doosan Heavy Industries in March.

France: New strikes protest gov’t pension changes

Several French trade unions have launched a new wave of strikes to protest the government’s plans to reform the pension system. The BBC reported that “tens of thousands” marched through Paris in heavy rain May 19, as teachers, hospital workers and other public sector workers stopped work. The protest is part of an ongoing campaign of labor action against the pension reform plan, which would require workers to contribute for a longer period to receive a full pension.

About half the country’s primary and nursery school teachers, and 40 percent of other teachers, reportedly joined the strike. Also stopping work were postal workers, bank staff and workers at the state controlled France Telecom. Though one French union federation, the CFDT, has dropped protests against the changes, several other unions including the left-led CGT have vowed to continue the struggle, if the government did not change its proposals, CGT head Bernard Thibault said over the weekend.

Argentina: Workers’ co-ops taking root

As the country’s economic crisis – brought on by IMF and World Bank instigated “austerity” measures – has worsened, workers are increasingly taking over bankrupt factories and running them as cooperatives.

Two years ago, workers at Fuerza y Union (“Strength and Union”), a metalworks factory in Buenos Aires, could barely make ends meet. “Now, we earn about three times more than our colleagues in traditional factories,” cooperative president Roberto Salcedo told Agence France Presse recently.

The 53 workers, who call themselves “partners,” formed their cooperative in January 2001. After a rough several months, legal problems were solved and orders started coming in. An electrician without managerial training, Salcedo says he is learning as he goes.

Fuerza y Union is one of some 200 firms that have been similarly turned into cooperatives, including a 65-member co-op of shipyard workers at the Buenos Aires port. “It’s neither socialism no capitalism, but a bit of both,” said Alberto Caro, president of the shipyard co-op.

India: 60 million set to strike

At press time, nearly 60 million workers throughout India were poised for a one-day strike May 21, to demand a halt to privatization and other economic reforms, including a government proposal to amend the labor laws to make it easier for employers to fire workers and close businesses. Participating in the warning strike called by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) are workers in government, banking, insurance, oil refineries, coal mining, and small industries. “This is only a prelude,” said CITU National Secretary Tapan Sen. “We are planning further action as there is a need to build up opposition against the government’s policies.”

Compiled by Marilyn Bechtel, who can be reached at cpusainternat@mindspring.com

ALA rejects U.S.-backed libraries in Cuba

Thu, 22 May 2003 08:49:00 +0000

Among the 75 dissidents recently convicted on subversion charges in Cuba are so-called “independent librarians.” Their arrest drew howls of protest from the Bush administration and Cuban emigres in Miami. But Ann Sparanese, a librarian at the Englewood, N.J. public library who is active in the American Library Association (ALA), is one of several alert ALA members who dug into the background of these “independent” librarians.

“They are not librarians at all,” she told the World in a telephone interview. “They are on the payroll of the U.S. government, the biggest, most powerful and richest country in the world that is trying to buy dissidents in Cuba.”

Sparanese wrote a report on the so-called “independent librarians” as well as on an outfit in the U.S. called “Friends of Cuban Libraries” (FOCL) headed by Cuban émigré Robert Kent, an employee of the New York City Library. Kent brags that he set up the network of “libraries,” and visited Cuba many times delivering cash and anti-government literature until he was deported in 1999. As early as July 2000, Kent approached the ALA demanding they denounce Cuban “repression” and also provide financial and political support for his network of “libraries” in Cuba.

Thanks to the efforts of Sparanese and others, ALA convened a hearing on Kent’s demands Jan. 13, 2001. After hearing her testimony and that of a University of California (UC) librarian, Rhonda L. Neugebauer, the ALA rejected his appeals.

Sparanese’s report points out that Cubanet, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. Agency for International Development and “anonymous” donors, openly brags of its “independent libraries project” in Cuba headed by leaders and officers of dissident political parties whose declared aim is to overthrow the Cuban government. She concludes her report, “If the ALA takes any action at all on Cuba, it should be to call for an end to the embargo and the hostile U.S. policy toward Cuba which harms the democratic rights, including freedom of expression, of both the Cuban and U.S. people.”

She said ALA is so determined to improve relations with the bonafide librarians of Cuba that a delegation from the ALA’s sister Cuban library association has been invited to attend the ALA’s annual convention in Toronto in June. “We will have a panel discussion and all kinds of welcoming activities,” she said.

Neugebauer, a bibliographer in Latin American Studies at UC-Riverside, and Larry Oberg, a librarian at Oregon’s Willamette University, went to Cuba in July 2000 to study the island’s system of 400 public libraries and 6,000 school libraries. Today, 97 percent of Cubans are literate, the highest rate in the western hemisphere. Before the 1959 socialist revolution, they point out, a majority of Cubans were illiterate and there were 32 libraries in the whole country.

Neugebauer and Oberg visited over a dozen “independent” libraries in several cities including Havana and Santiago. On their return, they issued a 21-page report titled, “Payment for Services Rendered: U.S.-Funded Dissent and the Independent Libraries Project.”

By interviewing the owners of these “libraries” they discovered that they “were carefully chosen drop-off and contact points for personnel from the U.S. Interests Section … the ‘independent librarians’ … told (us) that … they received regular visits from U.S. Interests Section personnel who dropped off packages on a monthly basis along with money.”

The report continues, “Since it was the first time any mention of money had been made in reference to their work, I asked, ‘What is the money for?” “For services rendered,” the “librarian” responded. “These libraries help the opposition in Cuba and our leadership in Miami. They tell us what to do. They receive our reports and news. They give us money so we can do what we do here, be dissidents and build opposition to the Cuban government.”

By coincidence, the report continues, “We arrived at one ‘library’ when a meeting was being held of ‘independent librarians,’ ‘independent teachers,’ independent trade unionists’ and some type of ‘independent religious’ organization.” The 10 dissidents “described to us the interconnected nature of their work against the Cuban government using a variety of front groups they called ‘independent.’ However, most of their meetings did not appear to be about library service or collections.”

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Flags fly at half-mast for Sisulu

Fri, 16 May 2003 07:15:00 +0000

Walter Sisulu, who together with Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo led the campaign that freed South Africa from the grip of apartheid, died on May 5, only days before his 91st birthday.

In a tribute to Sisulu, Blade Nzimade, general secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), said the Party “dips its banner, and expresses its heartfelt condolences to Mama Sisulu, to the Sisulu family and to our movement, the African National Congress [ANC].”

Nzimade said Sisulu “is synonymous with more than a half-century of mass struggles led by the African National Congress,” adding that Sisulu’s life “is the story of a rural boy, son of a domestic worker, later an urban worker nurtured within the ranks of the African National Congress.”

Nzimade also talked about Sisulu’s membership and leadership in the SACP. “After its banning in 1950, the Party was reconstituted in 1953 in the deep underground. Comrade Sisulu was recruited in 1955, and later became a member of the Central Committee. Comrade Walter, the communist – this is a story that will, at some stage, have to be told in its fullness.”

“A thoroughly democratic South Africa is the best monument that we can build in honor of Comrade Walter. Let us honor him by deepening the struggle for a better life for all, and most critically by tackling, collectively, the twin challenges of jobs and poverty eradication,” Nzimade concluded.

Sam Webb, chair of the Communist Party USA, said Sisulu combined revolutionary courage, determination and modesty in a “unique package. During his long life of struggle he set an example for people everywhere who are engaged in the struggle to make a better world.”

Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (COSATU) echoed Nzimade: “Comrade Walter would have insisted that we carry on, fighting to rid the country of all the evils we inherited from apartheid – the poverty, inequality, mass unemployment and HIV/AIDS which still blight our communities.”

COSATU asked workers throughout the country to honor Sisulu’s memory on May 7 by holding hands and bowing their heads during lunchtime at their places of work, saying “it would be fitting to make such a gesture in remembrance of the late African National Congress leader.”

Kgalema Motlanthe, ANC secretary general, lauded Sisulu, for his service to the ANC, first as its secretary-general during the Defiance Campaign in the 1950s and later as its deputy president during the constitutional negotiations leading up to the 1994 democratic elections. “He has never ceased to be a source of advice and inspiration to ANC leaders and members,” Mothlane said. In 1992 Sisulu was awarded Isithwalandwe Seaparankoe, the highest honor of the ANC, for his contribution to the struggle for liberation.

In 1961 Sisulu, Mandela and 154 others stood trial for treason. Although acquitted, they were arrested once more in 1963 and convicted of conspiring to overthrow the state, sentenced to life imprisonment and spent 26 years in prison, most of it on Robben Island. Sisulu was set free in October 1989, a precursor to Mandela’s release four months later.

Compounding his own isolation, Sisulu’s wife and children suffered arrests, banning orders, exile and official harassment.

Weakened by age and illness, Sisulu declined to seek a position in the new, democratic government elected in April 1994, when Mandela became president after the first all-race balloting. In December 1994 he stepped down as ANC deputy president bringing to an end a half-century of active participation in the South African freedom struggle. His wife, Albertina, and eight children survive him.

The funeral service of Sisulu was set for May 17 at Orlando Stadium in Soweto. Other memorials were held in Cape Town and Pretoria on May 13.

Bhopal survivors tour U.S., target Dow

Fri, 16 May 2003 03:43:00 +0000

SOUTHFIELD, Mich.— “Dow [Chemical] must face criminal trial,” Satinath Sarangi, an activist on behalf of Bhopal’s disaster victims, told a gathering of union activists here on May 7. It was hosted by HERE Local 24 and sponsored by local chapters of the U.S. Peace Council and Jobs with Justice.

Sarangi is on a solidarity-building and fund-raising tour with members of Bhopal Gas Affected Women’s Stationary Workers Association and the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal.

Late on Dec. 2 and early on Dec. 3, 1984, tons of poisonous gases leaked from a Union Carbide pesticides plant in Bhopal, India. Within three days 8,000 people were killed. Over 20,000 people have died as a direct result of the disaster, and as many as 500,000 have been adversely affected because of contamination which caused lingering health disorders, and the ecological disaster.

Union Carbide officials were brought up on criminal charges of manslaughter and were ordered to pay for medical and economic rehabilitation for the victims.

Just before the disaster, a series of cost-cutting measures, all approved by Union Carbide’s U.S. corporate headquarters, saw the elimination of safety and maintenance personnel and crucial safety equipment. Sarangi said the safety systems were “severely compromised” in order to save a few dollars a day in costs.

In the 1990s, Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide but refused to accept its liabilities. Dow Chemical has simply failed to accept financial or criminal responsibility for one of the deadliest corporate crimes in human history, Sarangi pointed out.

To make matters worse, Sarangi continued, they have attempted to blame the victims of the disaster for the gas leak. Dow’s position is a “disgruntled worker” caused the leak. However Union Carbide documents show they knew the plant was dangerous.

Dow Chemical should also be held responsible for the tons of toxic waste that have leaked into the soil and ground water in the area surrounding Bhopal, Sarangi said. Court documents show that Union Carbide corporate officials knew that what they were doing was killing the local wildlife.

Sarangi told the gathering that this corporate crime was a severe attack on workers’ rights and health. He said, “making unions stronger is the way to get ahead and we should be together.” He urged union members to learn more about Bhopal and write letters to the editors demanding that Dow face criminal charges in India and that it face its responsibilities. He also suggested writing to the Indian Embassy at Consular Wing, 2536 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20008 or by e-mail to consular@indiangov.org.

Readers can find more information and sign the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal’s petition at: www.bhopal.net.

Be warned: Dow Chemical has a website at www.bhopal.com.

The author can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net

Attacks on journalists prompt call for inquiry

Thu, 15 May 2003 09:20:00 +0000

As Operation Iraqi Freedom shifts to an occupation plan, international concern is being raised over the deaths of journalists in the course of the fighting.

A total of 14 international reporters died in Iraq in just over a month of covering the U.S.-led war. It is unclear how many Iraqi civilians were killed in attacks on media targets.

Reporters Without Borders, an international organization working for press freedom, has called for an independent inquiry by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to determine whether attacks on journalists constitute war crimes.

“These events are too serious to be left solely in the hands of an investigation by U.S. officials, who have already refused to give any details about the killing of a British TV journalist under British-U.S. gunfire in Basra ... and the disappearance of two of his colleagues caught in the incident,” the organization’s secretary-general, Robert Menard, wrote in a letter to the commission.

U.S. responses to the deaths of journalists have proven far from satisfactory for many. On April 21, Secretary of State Colin Powell replied to Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio’s concerns over the April 8 U.S. shelling of the Palestine Hotel. Reviewing the attack on the hotel, which had housed international journalists throughout the war, Powell said the U.S. had found “that the use of force was justified and the amount of force was proportionate to the threat against United States forces.”

Powell also wrote that the U.S. military does not target civilians or civilian structures. Though he did not mention it, such targeting would be in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

However, a spokesman for the Spanish defense ministry said the U.S. had declared the hotel a military target on April 6, on the grounds that Iraqi leaders were meeting there. Though the spokesman said journalists had been warned of this, following the obligation under the Geneva Conventions, those journalists at the hotel have said they received no such warning.

The attack killed two journalists, Jose Couso of Spain and Taras Protsyuk of the Ukraine, and injured others. It was followed on the same day by an attack on the Baghdad offices of Al-Jazeera, the Qatari-based television network, killing Taraq Ayyoub, and the offices of Abu Dhabi television.

The U.S. military’s justification for the attacks has been that they were in response to “hostile fire.” However, journalists on the scene have refuted this, saying that they had not seen or heard any gunfire. French television footage of the tank attack on the Palestine Hotel, starting a few minutes before the attack, confirms that there was no “hostile fire.”

The author can be reached at jbarnett@pww.org

International notes

Thu, 15 May 2003 09:04:00 +0000

Iraq: Agriculture in danger

Agriculture in Iraq is on the verge of collapse, raising fears that many of the country’s 24.5 million people will go hungry this summer, the London Observer said this week. The Observer said a confidential report prepared by the Rome staff of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reveals “a catastrophe in the making,” with crops and poultry especially hard hit.

Government warehouses that supply most of the seeds, fertilizers and pesticide sprays have been looted, particularly in central and southern Iraq, the report said. Pumping stations that powered irrigation systems for vegetable crops no longer function, and irrigation systems have been destroyed in central and southern Iraq, where a formerly thriving poultry industry is in ruins. Disease and pestilence are predicted among plants and animals.

Colombia: Unionist killed on May Day

The rural workers union SINTRAINAGRO announced last week that another of its officers — Juan de Jesus Gomez, president of the union organization in Minas — was gunned down on May 1 in the city of San Alberto.

Gomez and the union had been trying unsuccessfully to get the palm oil company Palmas del Cesar S.A. to the negotiating table. Despite the union’s willingness to negotiate on key issues of productivity and organization of work, management rejected talks and instead was firing some workers and bribing others to leave the union. SINTRAINAGRO’s requests to meet with the government ministry for protection in connection with the conflict had gone unanswered.

Gomez’ killing brings the number of union leaders murdered in Colombia in the past year to more than 130. To date, no one has been prosecuted or even detained by authorities in connection with these murders.

SINTRAINAGRO is calling for letters to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, auribe@presidencia.gov.co, urging government protection to all trade union leaders who request it.

Japan: ‘Love of country’ curriculum falls flat

Virtually none of Japan’s 24,000 public elementary schools are complying with the education ministry’s new “fostering love of country” curriculum goal, while the country’s largest teachers union has questioned the measure’s constitutionality, Japan Times Online said this week. “The freedom of belief is guaranteed by the Constitution and applies to children as well,” said a spokesperson for the Japan Teachers’ Union. “We think it is very serious that this language has been included in the guidelines before the matter was debated in the Diet [parliament].

“Who’s to say what patriotism is? How do you grade it?” asked one parent. “The whole thing sounds like a return to the militaristic thinking in this country before the war.”

South Africa: Mineworkers support women’s rights

As its congress ended over the weekend, the National Union of Mineworkers resolved to raise the role of women in the mining industry and to campaign vigorously against racism and tribalism in the industry.

The 1,000 delegates at the NUM Congress reiterated their commitment to achieve a 10 percent female representation in the mining sector, resolved to draft a gender strategy to serve as a guiding document, and said that women’s development should be linked to education programs at all levels. They called for a human resource development program linked to employment equity and workplace change.

Germany: Workers in east want 35-hour week

Following a wave of warning strikes, metal workers in eastern Germany have begun talks — anticipated to be difficult — with employers to phase in a 35-hour work week. Since the former socialist East Germany was taken over by West Germany in 1990, metal workers in the east have worked a 38-hour week for the same pay their western counterparts earn in 35 hours. Unemployment in eastern Germany is nearly double the average in western Germany.

Compiled by Marilyn Bechtel, who can be reached at cpusainternat@mindspring.com

Cuba rejects U.S. terrorism claims

Thu, 15 May 2003 08:58:00 +0000

The Cuban Foreign Ministry has strongly rejected Cuba’s inclusion in the list of countries allegedly sponsoring international terrorism the U.S. government issued April 30.

“The Bush administration is once again lying to the U.S. and international public in its desire to justify with false accusations the cruel and inhman policy of blockade, hostility and aggression in the case of Cuba,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement May 8.

“Maybe more than any other country in the world, Cuba knows what terrorism means,” the ministry said. “Since 1959 we have been the victim of the most cruel and merciless terrorism, frequently sponsored, protected, financed and organized by the U.S. government itself, and which has resulted in the death of thousands of Cuban citizens.”

The statement reiterated Cuba’s across-the-boards condemnation of all forms of terrorism, and its condemnation of any act aimed at supporting or covering up terrorism. At the same time, the ministry said, Havana’s proposal for a bilateral U.S.-Cuba program to combat terrorism, presented in November 2001 and reiterated several times since, has been repeatedly rejected by Washington.

The ministry also refuted the U.S. accusations, point by point, noting that the presence of Basque ETA members in Cuba is by agreement with the Spanish government, while Cuba’s participation in talks with the FARC has active support of the UN and the Colombian government. A supposed Irish Republican Army “weapons expert” was officially representing the legal Irish political party Sinn Fein during his years in Cuba, the ministry said, and the U.S. has never presented any proof of claims that Cuba sought to divert investigations of the Sept. 11 attack.

Washington’s allegations that fugitives from U.S. justice are sheltered in Cuba turns reality on its head, the statement said, since the U.S. has maintained “a policy throughout more than 40 years of protecting and shielding any criminal reaching U.S. territory after having committed criminal acts against Cuba and its people.” Nonetheless, the statement said, Cuba has repeatedly shown its full cooperation in exchanging information with U.S. authorities in cases of drug trafficking, illegal emigration, hijackings, etc.

The ministry said allegations that Cuba opposes the Bush administration’s “war on terrorism” ignore Havana’s post-Sept. 11 provision of information and its offers of medical assistance to combat anthrax — the latter never acknowledged by the U.S.

The statement emphasized that Cuba continues to “firmly and categorically” oppose the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq and the Bush administration’s new doctrine of preemptive war.

Israeli troops raid Peoples Party offices

Thu, 15 May 2003 08:52:00 +0000

Israeli troops raided the headquarters of the secretary general of the Palestinian People’s Party in Ramallah on Friday evening, May 9. The Israeli troops searched the headquarters and confiscated a large number of files and documents belonging to the Party and Sawt al-Watan magazine, published by the People’s Party.

According to reporters working for Sawt al-Watan as well as Palestinian security sources, the headquarters of the Party and the offices of the magazine were ransacked by Israeli troops, who raided the building where the offices are located at 11:30 p.m. on Friday evening. Friday is the official day off for Palestinians.

The Palestinian People’s Party is an extension of the Communist movement in Palestine that was formed in the mid-1920s and continues to be active in ending the Israeli occupation, struggling for a Palestinian state and national sovereignty for the Palestinian people.

The Israeli raid resulted in ransacking and rampaging of the offices and of confiscating computers’ hard disks, hard and electronic files belonging to the Party and Sawt al-Watan.

The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment (LAW) – sent out a statement strongly condemning the Israeli forces’ raid on the offices of the People’s Party and Sawt al-Watan magazine. The statement said LAW holds the Israeli government accountable for the deterioration of the situation in the Palestinian territories. LAW called “upon the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to provide protection for the Palestinian civilians and to put an end to Israel’s blatant human rights violations in the Palestinian territories.”

Israeli forces also raided the office of the International Solidarity Movement on Friday evening, May 9, where approximately 20 military vehicles, army jeeps and a large armored personnel surrounded the ISM media office in Beit Sahour. Computers and files were all pillaged, while soldiers broke equipment and damaged office space. Israeli forces kidnapped three volunteers.

The Israeli government has opened a new front against international peace and human rights workers, doing everything in their power to specifically prevent the nonviolent resistance to its military rule.

You can protest these raids by contacting your congressperson, the State Department and the White House. The State Department’s phone number is (202) 647-5150.

Vieques: Celebration and commitment

Fri, 09 May 2003 03:02:00 +0000

Hundreds of people stood waiting outside the gates of Camp Garcia, the U.S. Navy’s firing zone in the island municipality of Vieques. They were waiting until 12:01 AM, May 1, the first full day when the Navy would no longer be in control of Camp Garcia.

At 12:01 they cut the chains holding the gate together. Fences were torn down and hundreds entered, some shouting in jubilation, others with tears in their eyes, all happy. They renamed Camp Garcia, the First of May Free Zone. For the next four days, until May 4, the people of Vieques and Puerto Rico celebrated their victory over the world’s most powerful navy.

Right outside the gates a stage had been set up. Religious, political, civic, and other leaders from Vieques and the rest of Puerto Rico were also there to welcome an end to the military occupation of Vieques. Vieques had been used as a Navy and Marine Corps live ammunition bombing range since the 1940s.

A May Day rally was held in the town plaza in Isabel II with the stage set up in front of the statue of Simón Bolívar. (Vieques is the only place in Puerto Rico that Bolívar and his troops ever landed while fighting to liberate the Spanish colonies in the Americas.)

At the rally, Rubén Berríos, chairman of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, called on Puerto Ricans to reflect on the struggle for peace in Vieques to “extract the necessary lessons so that we can confront the great challenges that lay before our people.” Berríos, who spent 11 months in the firing range as a human shield against the bombing, said that the Navy leaving Vieques is “the most important victory since the American invasion” of Puerto Rico in 1898.

The celebrations, which were organized by a coalition of community organizations fighting to rid this municipality of 9,300 residents of the U.S. military presence, included cultural acts by many Puerto Rican artists. One of these, the popular singer Danny Rivera, said in an interview with a Puerto Rican newspaper that the people who fought for Vieques were “soldiers that believe we can win a better world than that of armed intervention and genocide against other peoples.” Rivera was among the over 1,500 people who served time in federal jail for committing acts of civil disobedience in Vieques.

For the people of Vieques the Navy’s departure is only the first victory, albeit an important one. Organizations like the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CPRDV) are demanding that the Navy return the First of May Free Zone to the people of Vieques and Puerto Rico. The CPRDV warned that “the people would return to the use of peaceful civil disobedience to demand its rights if there is any obstacle on the road to peace for our people.” The land had been officially transferred to the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior.

They are also demanding the Navy clean up the toxins and other materials left there as a result of more than half a century of bombings. Vieques suffers from a cancer rate that is 27 percent higher than the rest of Puerto Rico, which is believe to be caused by the carcinogenic materials, including highly toxic depleted uranium (DU) shells, in the former firing range.

According to the Puerto Rican Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, the cleanup of Vieques will probably start within two years and it may take from 30 to 50 years to complete. In 1999 the Navy fired 263 DU shells in violation of federal law. Only 57 of these shells have been recovered to date.

In a mass held on May 2, leaders of the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico declared that the fight for peace in Vieques will not be over until the lands are decontaminated and returned to the people of the island municipality and Puerto Rico.

The Puerto Rican government is applying to have the First of May Free Zone declared a Superfund site for environmental cleanup. They are also asking for funds for the cleanup of Culebra, another military site.

The Navy has already been accused of trying to evade its responsibility when it declared recently that nine of the 17 sites, which had previously been identified as being contaminated, were now classified as requiring “No further action.”

The Navy has a bad reputation regarding its promises on environmental cleanups at sites it has abandoned in a number of places including Hawaii and Panama.

The author can be reached at jacruz@attbi.com

International Notes

Wed, 07 May 2003 06:14:00 +0000

France: General strike planned May 13

French trade unions, outraged over the Chirac government’s plans to reform the pension system, said last week that public and private sector workers will hold a one-day general strike May 13.

After three months of consultations with workers and business leaders, the government on April 22 announced a 38-point program, which is to be the basis for a proposed new law. But both left-led and center unions rejected the scheme. Six leading unions issued a joint statement saying the measures “are dictated solely by the desire to reduce social and public expenditure. Only the intervention of the workers will lead to the text being modified, so the unions hereby call for mobilization on their claims.”

The new plan would lengthen the contribution time for public workers’ pensions to 40 years, to match the requirements for private sector workers. Early retirement would be penalized and the system would encourage working after the official retirement age.

Mexico: Law boosts women’s equality

In a great gain for women’s equality, Mexico’s parliament passed a new law last month outlawing discrimination in the workplace and protecting women’s reproductive and property rights. The new law defines inequality in salary, benefits and conditions of employment, based on gender, as discrimination. The law also protects women’s rights to own land – particularly important to indigenous women – and it includes as discrimination any actions compromising women’s access to information about contraception and reproductive issues.

Haiti: Demonstrators uphold democracy

Chanting “Yes to democracy, No to occupation,” several hundred demonstrators marched from the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince to the National Palace April 24, to denounce efforts by the Haitian opposition and sectors of the international community to overthrow elected President Bertrand Aristide, the Haitian press agency AHP reported. The march, organized by the National Popular Party (PPN), also protested the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Demonstrators also denounced the opposition Democratic Convergence and Group of 184 for supporting U.S.-orchestrated economic sanctions that have worsened the plight of the Haitian people.

PPN President Benjamin Dupuy emphasized that the ballot box remains the sole constitutionally acceptable means of taking power in a democratic society, and called on opposition parties to wait until President Aristide’s term ends before contesting for power.

Poland: Workers march vs. joblessness

Some 20,000 Polish workers marched in Warsaw April 25 to protest government policies they say are responsible for unemployment, which has now reached 19 percent.

Demonstrators at the march organized by the Solidarity union demanded the government take steps to reduce the high jobless rate. In socialist times a job was a basic right.

Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who took office promising to boost the economy with more free market reforms, has seen his approval ratings sink to an all-time low.

Ireland: IRA will disarm if others meet obligations

Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, said April 27 that the Irish Republic Army will disarm fully as part of the Northern Ireland peace settlement if other parties to the accord fulfill their obligations.

“The IRA has clearly stated its willingness to proceed with the implementation of a process to put arms beyond use at the earliest opportunity,” Adams told the Northern Ireland Assembly. “Obviously, this is not about putting some arms beyond use. It is about all arms. ... If the two governments and all the parties fulfill their commitments, this will provide the basis for the complete and final closure of the conflict.”

Fiji: Cannery workers win wage hike

An arbitrator has ruled that nearly 700 workers at the Pacific Fishing Company Limited (PAFCO) must receive their first pay raise since the late 1960s. Union spokesman Tomasi Tokalauavere told the Daily Post the cannery workers had not received any wage or cost of living increase since the late 1960s when the company was under Japanese administration. Wages are now about $70 per week, rising to $100 with overtime.

As a result, workers – including women who have suffered the most – have been forced to borrow from loan sharks, banks and PAFCO’s credit union, and have incurred debts to merchants.

The arbitrator ruled that wages must rise to $2.75 per hour for unskilled and $3.50 per hour for skilled workers, and men’s and women’s wages must be equal. PAFCO has not yet said whether it will accept the ruling.

International notes are compiled weekly by Marilyn Bechtel, Communist Party international secretary. She can be reached at

International notes

Wed, 07 May 2003 06:11:00 +0000

S. Africa: Farm workers fight back

Some 2,400 tomato farm workers are fighting in the courts to win their jobs back. The workers, employed by ZZ2 – one of the world’s largest tomato producers – were fired when management claimed they went on strike in a dispute over wage increases and the company’s deductions for housing, food and other services. The workers, however, say they merely confronted management over “unreasonable” deductions.

Their union, the South African Agricultural Plantation and Allied Workers Union, has appealed to the Labor Court in Johannesburg to reinstate the workers temporarily, pending the outcome of an arbitration hearing.

Mojeremane Manareng told South Africa’s Sunday Times that ZZ2 had deducted over half his March wages for the one-room house he shares with his wife, also a ZZ2 worker. Federal legislation says farmers may not deduct more than 20 percent for accommodation and food.

Altogether, about 12,000 people are affected by the dismissals.

China: Fight vs SARS intensifies

Gao Qiang, China’s Executive Vice Minister of Health, told an April 20 news conference that controlling the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a top priority for the highest bodies of the government and Communist Party.

Gao said the central government has intensified its efforts to monitor and prevent the spread of the disease in places where crowds come together, such as schools, government institutions and military barracks. He said medical and research institutions are making new efforts to develop new treatment methods and reduce deaths caused by SARS. He also said the government will strengthen its cooperation with the World Health Organization, adding that officials from the Chinese Ministry of Health and WHO experts are currently working together on prevention and control.

Gao told the press conference that the State Council had canceled the week-long May Day holiday period, during which many Chinese travel to other parts of the country, to help prevent the disease from spreading.

Gao said 1,807 SARS cases had been confirmed on the mainland, of which 1,304 were in Guangdong. Starting April 21, information on SARS cases will be made public on a daily basis, he said.

Colombia: Paramilitaries target the left

“Paramilitary bands are continuing with their campaign of open persecution of the left and leaders of the Colombian Communist Party and Young Communists of Colombia,” the CP of Colombia said in a statement April 22.

The CP said university professor and party leader, Jaime Gomez, this week had a threatening encounter in front of the facilities of the University Francisco de Paula Santander in the city of Cucuta, on the border with Venezuela. Paramilitary assassins tried to enter and raid the offices where he took refuge.

Last week several leaders of the Young Communists of Colombia were forced to leave the city because they were pursued by the paramilitaries.

The CPC said it is noteworthy that the paramilitary activity in Cucuta took place in broad daylight and the authorities did nothing to suppress it.

“We denounce this persecution and demand that the government of President Alvaro Uribe put an end to the impunity and the official complacency surrounding the paramilitary activity in Cucuta and Norte de Santander,” the CPC said.

South Korea: Unions avert railway privatization

South Korea’s railroad workers have called off a major strike in return for a pledge from President Roh Moo-hyun averting partial privatization of the Korean National Railroad, The railroad workers union argued that privatization would result in mass layoffs, fare increases, and cancellation of unprofitable routes. Some 24,000 of the Korean National Railroad’s 30,000 workers are union members.

The move alarmed investors, who now fear other privatization plans may be delayed or cancelled. “It’s worse than having a strike,” Huh Chan-guk, an economist at the Korea Economic Research Institute, told the BBC this week.

Argentina: Co-op supporters attacked by police

Police used rubber bullets and tear gas April 21 against hundreds of demonstrators gathered to support workers at a Buenos Aires clothing factory who have been running the plant as a cooperative for the last year. The demonstrators had gathered outside the Brukman plant, one of about 100 businesses that have been taken over by workers, when their former owners lost them in Argentina’s economic crisis. About one-fifth of Argentine workers are unemployed.

The Brukman factory has been operated by 57 of its original 157 employees. They have been forced out twice, but have been allowed to resume operations following legal action. The workers are now engaged in another court battle, hoping to gain ownership of the plant.

International Notes are compiled by

Marilyn Bechtel (cpusainternat@mindspring.com)

Vietnam beats SARS, but Asia still at risk

Wed, 07 May 2003 06:05:00 +0000

NEW DELHI – Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a form of pneumonia, is spreading across Asia. Thousands are in hospitals and the death toll is several hundred. The most affected nations are China including Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines and Burma. In India, 13 cases have been reported and nine have died.

Vietnam, however, will become the first SARS-infected country to be declared free of the virus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), raising hopes the killer disease can be beaten worldwide.

“Vietnam will come off the list today,” said WHO spokesman Dick Thompson, on April 28, backing up an earlier statement by the Vietnamese Health Ministry. Vietnam has seen 63 infections of the new flu-like disease, including the deaths of five medical workers.

But the last case was reported on April 8, some three weeks ago and more than double the believed incubation period which WHO has set as the benchmark for deciding when any outbreak has been fully controlled.

This disease is not only taking valuable lives, but ruining the Asian economy as well, which impacts the world economy. World economic growth has been scaled down to 2.3 percent for 2003 from an earlier forecast of 2.8 percent.

Millions of workers on the Asian continent will face the repercussions. Travel, tourism, electronics and retail industries, especially in Hong Kong and Singapore, have experienced a major downturn due to SARS. The airline industry, which has been severely affected by war in Iraq, is now in deeper trouble. Travelers are canceling trips to Asia and business groups are calling off conferences. China and Malaysia have already closed major airports and ports.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned in a recent statement that the overall economic fallout of the SARS crisis for worst-affected nations would be significant as tourism and retail sectors suffered major blows. The warning, included in its report on the global economy, came after the World Bank cited the deadly virus as one factor behind a cut in its East Asia growth forecast.

The Chinese government said while there has been improvement in the situation, there were still places where it remained serious.

“Much progress has been made in combating the disease so far, with the epidemic brought under control in some areas, but the overall situation remains grave,” said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Iraqi Communist paper hits Baghdad streets

Wed, 07 May 2003 05:37:00 +0000

Reporters from the corporate media told the story from Baghdad. In a city craving information the man walking along Paradise Square was surrounded by people, as if he was giving out chunks of gold. But in the 21st century, information can be as good as gold.

The paper, called Tarieq Al-Shaab, or The Way of the People, had hit the streets of Baghdad as the first newspaper since the U.S. war and fall of Saddam Hussein. The Way of the People is published by the heroic Iraqi Communist Party (ICP). People had been executed for smuggling it from northern Iraq since it was banned in 1979.

“Saddam is gone but the paper is back,” Faris Faris, from the ICP, told reporters. The paper was trucked into Baghdad from the north. Sixty thousand copies were distributed in two days.

The Way of the People was a popular daily in the years before Hussein’s rule. When the paper was banned, ICP members kept it running as a monthly, printing it in northern Iraq, in secret. In 1996, when northern Iraq was more or less autonomous, the paper moved above ground and reporters began putting their names on the bylines. But the paper was still banned in Baghdad.

The first issue’s headlines read “The dictator has fallen; our people look for democracy and unity,” “Thousands dead in bombings,” and another was “Humanitarian groups: Oil protected, not Iraqi people.”

“We are the only people capable of publishing, so we will publish as often as we can,” Faris said. “As much as water, people need news.”

Noah Ibrahim, a reporter and editor for The Way of the People for 13 years, said during the Hussein rule “every edition we printed, every newspaper we moved, we knew we could be killed. It was worth it because we wanted to tell the truth to the Iraqi people.”

The Communist Party existed throughout the Hussein years as well. Members communicated with secret signs – including placements of pens or shirt sleeves rolled up in a certain way. The ICP was one of the largest communist parties in the Middle East before Hussein.

Plans are underway to get daily editions of the newspaper up and running in the next month or so.

Ibrahim told reporters, “We will try to develop our reporters to use the Internet, and that will be difficult because the ones in Baghdad have never used it. But if they know truth and how to tell truth, they will be very good reporters.”

While the bad news of the genocidal impact of the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq permeates throughout the world, the chunks of gold and hope are found in the ICP’s heroism and courage in getting out their newspaper. It is certainly good news for all progressive forces and freedom of the press lovers the world over.

Iraqis say No U.S. occupation

Wed, 07 May 2003 05:30:00 +0000

Shouts of “No to colonialism, no to occupation” resounded throughout Iraq this week.

In demonstrations, religious services and a massive Shiite pilgrimage, Iraqis of various faiths demanded that the U.S. leave Iraq. The Iraqi Communist Party, which reopened offices in Baghdad and other cities last week, issued a statement saying: “Our people’s joy at the fall of the tyrant and his rule did not mean in any way that they are happy with the invasion and occupation. It is evident that military rule and occupation in general will not receive approval and support from our people.

“Our people have fought to get rid of Saddam’s oppressive dictatorial regime so they can build on its remains a democratic rule which expresses their independent will and fulfills their legitimate demands, and not a new oppressive military rule.”

The civilian death toll is now at 2,500, and health care, water and electricity remain in disarray. Medical Aid for the Third World said ambulances and civilian cars have been hit by U.S. troops, patients and health workers have had difficulty getting through U.S. military checkpoints, and hospitals and other medical facilities are plundered and neglected.

“Without electricity, safe water supply and the provision of medicines and other medical supplies, many patients are simply left to die,” the group said.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration is developing “an ambitious plan to remake [Iraq] in the image of America’s free-wheeling system of capitalism,” the Chicago Tribune reports.

“U.S. officials are aiming at nothing less than ending Hussein’s legacy of state-controlled industries – including oil,” says the article. “The Treasury Department, responsible for developing an economic reform plan, would like to see the oil sector privatized so that U.S. oil companies … would be permitted to bid on drilling rights.”

Also, according to The New York Times, the Bush administration is planning “a long-term military relationship with the emerging government of Iraq” that would give the Pentagon access to military bases and project American influence into the heart of the region. “If the ties are close enough, the military relationship could become one of the most striking developments in a strategic revolution now playing out across the Middle East and Southwest Asia, from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean,” the Times said.

Joe Gerson, director of the Peace and Economic Security Program at the American Friends Service Committee, commented: “Behind the rhetoric of ‘liberation’ and not staying ‘a day’ longer than needed, the Bush administration is clearly working to create a client government which will allow the U.S. to maintain military bases for the long term.” The U.S. government, in effect, will be transforming Iraq into an “unsinkable aircraft carrier for the United States,” Gerson said. “The unprecedented network of U.S. bases is the basis of a global empire, there’s no way to avoid that term.”

The installation of former Lt. Gen. Jay Garner as head of the U.S. occupation “embodies the Bush administration’s shortsightedness and moral bankruptcy,” William Hartung of the World Policy Institute said. Garner has interests in companies like SY Technologies which stand to profit from the war in Iraq. He is also a longtime associate of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, which has close ties to Israel’s right-wing Likud Party and has long supported “regime change” in Iraq.

Mustapha Tlili, also of the World Policy Institute, told the World no one in the Arab world will believe Bush administration spokespeople like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld talking about democracy. “The level of anger is beyond mistrust. The U.S. has never before been seen as negatively as today.”

Noting concerns that a UN role in post-war Iraq could throw a cloak of legitimacy over the illegal U.S. military action, Hartung said peace activists “can’t afford to ‘take a pass’ and stand back” from the process of meeting Iraq’s massive economic, humanitarian and security needs, “whatever their cause may be.” Peace activists must demand “widespread, full internationalization of the rebuilding process and … treat the unilateralist nature of the intervention itself as an aberration not to be repeated,” he said.

“How Iraq is rebuilt will determine whether the United States will use its immense power to act as a quasi-imperial power, or as a responsible global partner,” said Hartung. “It will say a great deal about whether this is the last unilateralist war for regime change launched by the Bush junta, or the first in a series of ‘wars without end’ to reshape the globe.”

The author can be reached at suewebb@pww.org